I. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a biodegradable soil sensor, system and method. More specifically, but not exclusively, the present disclosure relates to a biodegradable soil sensor, a biodegradable soil sensing system and method for obtaining soil information.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Current methods of assessing crop health rely on monitoring spectral content of light reflected by the plants. These methods use passive sensors on satellites and aircraft or active sensors mounted on tractors. There are drawbacks to these methods in that many variables can impact reflectivity including nutrient deficiencies, differences among varieties, field resolution, disease, etc. In particular, soil type is one of the more significant variables in using this method of nutrient sensing. While these tools are useful in examining crop health, they are indirect measurements and ultimately require previous knowledge of the soil conditions and specialized algorithms to properly evaluate crop conditions.
Therefore, it is an object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure to provide a biodegradable sensor for measuring crop health by taking direct measurements from the soil.
While there are commercially available products that directly measure moisture and temperature of the soil, these sensors are typically large, bulky, and expensive. This means that fewer sensors are available within a particular planting area generating low resolution data which may not give accurate information about conditions throughout a particular field.
Therefore, another object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a biodegradable soil sensing system that is sufficiently economical so as to be capable of being deployed in number commensurate with the number of seed planted for generating a high resolution map of soil conditions.
Another object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a biodegradable sensor that is small, inexpensive, robust, easy to deploy, and easy to read.
Increasing the number of sensors or sensor nodes in a field to increase the resolution of the data mapping field conditions is often limited by the cost of the sensor, deployment, retrieval, operation, etc. Over time deployed sensors interact with the soil and ground moisture, and degradation of the sensor is inevitable, but retrieval/removal of large numbers of sensors is also a problem. Moreover, sensor degradation could contaminate the soil and/or negatively impact the quality or safety of crops and the soil.
Therefore, another object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a method using biodegradable sensors that can be deployed, for example, using a seeder or planter, and where the sensor is generally bioinert, non-bioaccumulating or otherwise biodegradable and not retrieved.
A still further object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a biodegradable sensor that is passive thereby eliminating the need for an internal battery.
Yet another object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a sensor that can be monitored using vehicles, tractors, planes, or other equipment passing through or above the field.
One or more of these and/or other objects, features or advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the specification and claims that follow.